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FEDERAL REGULATION
AND CURRENT
WORKPLACE ISSUES
BY
GINA EKWEALOR
JANET FOLAYAN
SYLVESTER COBBS

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 CHAPTER 14
 U.S BUSINESS AND THE DECLINE OF COMPETITION

CHAPTER 15
 RISE OF REGULATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

CHAPTER 16
 WORKPLACE ISSUES I: EMPLOYMENT VERSUS PERSONAL DIGNITY

CHAPTER 17
 WORKPLACE ISSUES II: DESIGNING A BETTER ORGANIZATION

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U.S. BUSINESS AND THE DECLINE OF COMPETITION

 The origins of business in the United States can be traced through the 6 stages of capitalism that were divided by a noted business historian, N. S. B. de
Gras.
 Pre-business capitalism
 Petty capitalism
 Mercantile capitalism
 Industrial capitalism
 Financial capitalism
 National capitalism

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CAPITALISM



Capitalism is often identified with a system of unfettered individual enterprise: a system in which both economic and social relations are governed by contract, individuals are thought to be free agents in pursuing their livelihoods, and legal compulsions and restrictions are thought to be mostly absent or minimal. 

Capitalism was a system of commodity production under which labor had itself become a commodity and was brought and sold on the market like any other object of exchange.
 Therefore, the concentration of wealth, the ownership of the means of production in the hands of a few (a class), and the emergence of another property-less class for whom the only means of living was the sale of their labor.

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GRAS’S STAGES OF CAPITALISM
 Pre-business Capitalism: began in Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1500). In this period, there was little social mobility; feudalism reigned in the villages and manorial estates. People worked really hard and they basically lived under the barter system.

 Petty Capitalism: it dominated the British Colonies in North America from the 17 th century to about 1750. Petty capitalist were shopkeepers or travelling merchants whose enterprises seldom extended either beyond the village where their shop was located or the route they travelled.

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STAGES OF CAPITALISM
 Mercantile Capitalism: from 1750-1850. It can be divided into the colonial mercantilism and wholesale mercantilism.
 The colonial merchant was an all round business person. He financed and insured the transportation of his goods. And he also provided the funds needed by the planter and artisan to finance the production of crops and goods.
 The wholesale merchant came up in the 19th century when the several functions of the colonial merchant were taken over by specialists such as importers, insurers, bankers and wholesalers. Wholesalers controlled the flow of goods from producers to consumers. They financed the canals, turnpikes, early railroads, and supplied capital for early textile mills and steel manufacturers.

STAGES OF CAPITALISM

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

Industrial Capitalism: the rise of the factory-based manufacturing. It existed from approximately 1850- 1893. The first fully integrated factory in the United States was owned by the Boston Manufacturing Company. From 1893-1933, bankers and investment brokers became the dominant force in American business. This period was known as the
Finance Capitalism.



In 1893, the national railroad system was essentially complete and it provided access to all national and regional markets. High tariffs protected nearly every major industry from foreign competition and the federal government was not aggressively prosecuting trusts or holding companies under the Sherman Act.

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STAGES OF CAPITALISM
 National Capitalism: dated 1933 and was the advent of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
 There is a drastic shift away from the strong reluctance of government to intervene in economic affairs toward an expanded use of the federal government’s fiscal, monetary, and regulatory powers.
 Before De Gras died in 1956, he predicted a new stage of capitalism known as GLOBAL CAPITALISM.

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THE DECLINE IN BUSINESS COMPETITION
 Price cutting in the 1870s and 1880s led